96-Year-Old Judge’s Fitness Hearing Will Stay Closed to Public

A Federal Circuit panel shot down 96-year-old Judge Pauline Newman’s request to make public a July hearing that will discuss her fitness to remain on the bench.

In a Tuesday order, Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore and two other judges wrote that publicly airing out the details of Newman’s alleged mental and physical decline would be inappropriate because the hearing will rely on confidential details shared by as-yet-unnamed witnesses.

“Opening the July 13 argument to the public carries a grave risk of precisely the harms the Committee has carefully avoided up to this point—namely, inadvertent disclosure of both witnesses’ identities and confidential details of witness statements and impairing the investigative process,” according to the order.

However, the committee said it’s open to releasing a transcript of the hearing that includes “appropriate redactions for material that should remain confidential, such as information that may identify witnesses.”

The order is the latest development in an uncharacteristically public employment dispute within the judiciary, drawing fresh attention to the consequences of lifetime appointments for federal judges.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s Judicial Council set the closed-to-the-public oral argument session to allow for discussion of Newman’s conduct in a probe initiated under the 1980 Judicial Conduct and Disability Act.

While the probe initially focused on her capabilities to remain in the position, it has now been narrowed to discuss whether she had good reason for not complying with a Judicial Council special committee’s request for a medical exam and the release of medical records.

Moore kicked off the proceeding earlier this year, citing numerous reports from judges and court staff that Newman—who turned 96 on Tuesday—had become hard to work with and was impeding the progress of the court.

Newman’s representatives asked the court on June 15 to open the hearing to the public, saying such a move wouldn’t “cast an unnecessary cloud over Judge Newman,” according to a letter from New Civil Liberties Alliance attorney Gregory Dolin. Allowing people to listen in will “serve only to increase the public’s confidence in Judge Newman’s abilities and the disciplinary process,” he wrote.

Newman has been temporarily barred from hearing new cases since the probe began in March. She sued her colleagues in D.C. federal court seeking to be restored to a full case load; that suit is ongoing.

Judges Richard G. Taranto and Sharon Prost sit alongside Moore on the judicial council special committee that’s investigating Newman.

The Judicial Council comprising all active Federal Circuit judges, the special committee, and the court are not providing any additional statement at this time, according to a note on the Federal Circuit’s website. NCLA declined to provide further comment.

The case is IN RE: COMPLAINT, Jud. Council Fed. Cir., NO. 23-90015, 6/20/23.